Legacy of a Jedi Master
by celinenaville
Summary: Qui-Gon and Yoda do not see eye to eye, Yoda must see past their differences to truly see Qui-Gon's Legacy.


**Screenname: **celinenaville

**Summary: **Divided into three parts, this story explores the friendship between Yoda and Qui-Gon Jinn at varying times in Qui-Gon's life.

**Disclaimer: **This is a work of fanfiction. I do not own any of the characters within and make no monetary gain off this work.

**Legacy of a Jedi Master**

**Part 1: DEFIANCE**

The temple gardens were peaceful, tranquil, filled with life and renewal, eons away from what Qui-Gon Jinn felt. He was haunted, it seemed. Haunted by the choices he'd made, haunted by betrayal – and he found himself alone, berating himself for his mistakes. He stood quietly watching the greenery, the only bit of natural beauty in all Coruscant, a planet far too machinated for Qui-Gon's taste.

"Troubled you are," the familiar voice grated behind Qui-Gon. The tall Jedi did not have to turn around to know who it was.

"I find that I frequently am, Master Yoda," he replied cordially.

"Hmmmm," the tiny Jedi moved to stand beside him, barely reaching his former student's knees. "Why feel you this way?"

Qui-Gon closed his blue eyes, so aged for such a young and handsome face. His lips drew together in a firm line; the breeze tousled his long brown hair, but he did not answer.

"Ignore me, you should not," Yoda warned gently, with a poke at Qui-Gon's boot. "Strange you are, Qui-Gon. Alienate yourself from others you do, and then mourn because you are alone."

"It somehow doesn't seem that way to me," Qui-Gon replied softly.

Yoda laughed, but his heavy-lidded green eyes held no sign of amusement. "Make your path more difficult than it needs to be, you do."

"If you're insinuating that I create my own problems – I do what I must Yoda, no more."

Yoda snorted, "Must you try to save every creature you meet? Their guardian are you? Big you are Qui-Gon, but not big enough to be responsible for all."

Qui-Gon's eyes looked out into the artificial horizon. "Shouldn't a Jedi help those he can?"

"Should not a Jedi help himself as well?" Yoda countered quickly. "Defiant you are. Defiant you always have been." He tugged harshly on Qui-Gon's brown trouser leg. "Like talking to your knees I do not."

Qui-Gon reluctantly turned and knelt down to the ancient master's stunted height. "I do not wish to discuss this with you," he replied confidently.

Yoda met his gaze, "Rebel even now you do."

Qui-Gon drew a calming breath. "I defy the council only when I must."

"No!" Yoda banged his gimer stick against the ground. "Defy when it suits you! When the decision to make is difficult!"

"Sometimes the council is wrong," Qui-Gon countered angrily.

"Have all the answers you do? So knowledgeable are you! Is that why to the darkside your student has turned? Because so right were you."

Qui-Gon's composure momentarily broke, and a flash of defiant pain lit his eyes. "If I didn't know better, I would assume that bringing up Xanatos was meant to hurt me."

"Assume you always do. Assume the code applies not to you."

"The code should not be set in stone," Qui-Gon stood to his full height and turned his back to the diminutive master.

"Only your heart, hmmmm?"

In all his life, it seemed that no one could wound him with quite the same ease as Yoda.

"Why don't you like me, Master?" Qui-Gon said lowly. The composure of his tone belied the anguish in the blue eyes. Behind him, he heard Yoda make a disapproving snort.

"Too old for this you are, Qui-Gon. Not some child searching for reassurance."

Qui-Gon closed his eyes and swallowed down the old pain. Yoda was correct, he must not make this argument about old wounds.

"Hate you I do not, Qui-Gon," Yoda added after a moment. The tall man turned around to face his former teacher.

"Bitter you have become," Yoda observed.

"Not bitter. Frustrated with the unbending rules of the council. Frustrated with everyone's inability to understand another's point of view." Qui-Gon folded his arms.

"The council sees your point of view, but uphold our vows we must. One day great upheaval for us all will your defiance cause. Unfortunate that you waste your talent."

Qui-Gon's jaw tightened. "My talent is not wasted in helping the less fortunate."

"More could we accomplish as a whole…loneliness makes you talk this way, hmmm?" Yoda's long ears twitched. "One so close to the living force; yet so few friends have you."

Qui-Gon bit his lip and wondered why Yoda wanted to hurt him this way. It seemed that they had been at odds for as long as he could remember. The little master pointed his clawed finger at the tall man. "Allow someone to love you. Closed off your heart you have. Keep your distance you do. Afraid to be hurt again, I think?"

Qui-Gon's blue gaze met Yoda's levelly. "I already have been."

Yoda snorted. "Call this hurt you do? Truth this is – not hurt. Xanatos robbed you, I think. Open your heart, or repeat the same mistakes you will."

"With who? I'm not taking another padawan." Qui-Gon turned away again, his brown robe flowing behind him as he moved.

"Take another you will in time, Qui-Gon Jinn. Him I have seen." Yoda's reedy voice called behind him.

"No," Qui-Gon muttered. He shook his head, knowing that he could never allow another to get so close as Xanatos, his little dark-haired apprentice had been. The pain would kill him. It nearly had. He was thankful that Yoda could not see the tears that gathered in his eyes, as he strode away from his wizened antagonist, into the depths of the garden. Treading gently on the rich, dark soil instead of striding along the neat cobblestone path that cut through its heart.

**Part 2: Premonitions**

Qui-Gon Jinn sat quietly on the temple garden's ornate stone bench, sipping his cup of green tea. The sound of traffic occasionally screeched by overhead, but the jedi master was able to ignore it and retreat into the sanctity of his solitude. Alone. That seemed to be where Qui-Gon found himself more and more. Alone.

_I've failed_. The thought sprang unbidden into his mind to run its usual course of guilt and self-recrimination_. I've failed_. He shook his head and leaned his head into his hands, willing himself to clear his mind.

_Xanatos._

Qui-Gon pushed the name away with a concentrated effort.

"To dwell on him only lends power to him." Yoda's distinctive voice cut through Qui-Gon's reverie, and he looked up with some surprise at not having sensed the master's presence.

The big man shook his head. "Must I shield my mind from you at all times?"

Yoda snorted. "Need the Force to read your mind, I do not. Etched on your face your pain is, Qui-Gon."

Qui-Gon crossed his arms and his expression grew wary ad he looked at the wizened little Jedi.

Yoda smiled humorlessly, and used his cane to advance closer. "Such an unwelcome adversary am I?"

Qui-Gon let out a long breath. "No, Master."

"Think you that I came here to hurt you?" Yoda asked, climbing stiffly onto the bench beside his former student. Qui-Gon reached out a hand to help him, and the little Jedi smacked it away defensively. "Need you help, I do not."

Qui-Gon turned his head away, blue eyes gazing soulfully into the distance.

"Warned you of him, I did."

The big Jedi stiffened, but remained silent.

"Sorry for you I am, Qui-Gon," Yoda said softly. He paused, ears twitching thoughtfully before proceeding. "When young you were, watched you I did. Everything, you loved. Every tree, every animal, every sentient, all important to you were they. Never did you see the whole tapestry. Only the threads of its fabric.

"Noble were you, Qui-Gon ... Thought I that I could teach you to use your mind, hmmm?" Yoda's ears drooped, "But never did you learn.

"Lead with your heart you do." Yoda poked Qui-Gon's chest with his clawed finger, "And wonder why it shatters."

Qui-Gon locked gazes with his companion.

"And now closed it is. So big was this heart, and closed it you have."

Qui-Gon gave a sad little half-smile. "I'm afraid you exaggerate, Yoda."

Yoda's eyes widened. "Exaggerate?" He snorted in dissention. "Then why sit you here broken? Saddened? Alone?"

"That is how you interpret it, I'm afraid," Qui-Gon replied coolly.

The little Jedi master actually laughed. "_Interpret? Feel_ you I can, Qui-Gon. Know you, I do."

"No you don't," the big man replied firmly.

Yoda slammed his gimmer stick against the stone bench. "Enough! Because I do not agree with you does not mean I do not know you. Know you I do. That is why I try to help you. Hmm? But rebel Qui-Gon. Always rebel. Refuse me you do. Refuse advice, refuse to listen."

Qui-Gon's blue eyes flashed. "This is how you help me, Master? By rubbing salt in my wounds? It's all you've ever done. My entire life, never sympathy, never love, only reprimands. I hurt over things, Yoda. Let me deal with them in my own way." The big Jedi paused to collect himself, aware that once more his former master was able to illicit emotional responses from him with the ease with which he could levitate a lightsaber.

"Sympathy? Love? A Jedi's life is not about these things. Listen. For once, listen. Let go of the pain, or control you it will," Yoda relied, somewhat nettled.

Qui-Gon bit his lip, feeling his throat tighten. He couldn't let go. It seemed that if he did, he would have to let go of Xanatos as well. He wasn't ready for that. Not yet.

"The next shall save you," Yoda added quietly, "save you if you let him."

"I'm not taking another Padawan," Qui-Gon began, but even as he said it, in his mind's eyes he saw a flash of soft blue eyes that were not his own—within seconds they were gone.

"I tell you because shut him out, you must not, or lose him you will. So much loss." Yoda leaned forward and slowly reached up to touch the face of his former student. He ran a clawed finger over Qui-Gon's bearded jawline and watched as the big man's eyes welled up with unshed tears. Yoda's expressive ears drooped solemnly. "Need approval so much, Qui-Gon?" For once his voice was quiet, gentle. "So connected to the living force are you that you take on other's emotions as your own. Why not rely on your own approval? Not mine. Not Dooku's."

Qui-Gon swallowed convulsively, suddenly looking more like a lost boy than himself.

"Hard it is to love someone so headstrong. So rebellious."

There it was, the little wounding knife thrust to the heart that Qui-Gon had been expecting. He recoiled from the ancient master and stood up fluidly, his voice thick and husky. "It is equally hard to love someone who wounds me so, Yoda. Respectfully, I don't need your approval. I follow my own path," he paused, choking on his words, " no matter how difficult that path is."

Yoda locked gazes with him, green eyes unreadable. "Mind what I have told you, Qui-Gon Jinn."

Qui-Gon turned, attempting to harness his emotion. 'No emotion, only peace,' he told himself firmly. The pain eased back a little and he sensed Yoda retreating down the path as he stood silently, cloak whipping in the breeze.

'Xani,' the thought emerged again from the recesses of his mind. But suddenly those soft blue eyes, not Xani's, resurfaced, driving Xanatos out of his consciousness.

"Master," he heard the breeze whisper in a soft regal brogue that he'd never heard before.

Qui-Gon opened his eyes and scanned around him, attempting to understand the images he was receiving. The Force was trying to tell him something. He just didn't know what or who it wanted him to see.

Qui-Gon grasped at the fleeting premonition and felt it slip through his mind like lyrics to a forgotten song. He saw nothing more, but the breeze followed him home.

**Part 3: Echoes**

Certain places seemed to hold onto the living energies that pass through them like mud holds a footprint, Yoda noted to himself as he paused along his walk through the temple gardens.

The temple itself had myriad energies flowing along its hallways in layered tangled masses, the result of millennia of Jedi living and studying within its walls. The very air was a repository of peaceful emanations left by minds focused on bettering the galaxy.

But the gardens were different, because the gardens were, themselves, alive. They radiated their own force signature- that of plants and animals, and an entire ecosystem in the middle of Coruscant's permacrete and transparisteel soul. Yet this section of the garden was different still. Yoda stepped off the stone path to tread in the soil, using his gimmerstick to move himself along. This little sanctuary of tiny waterfall and graceful fern and weathered rock felt so strongly of Qui-Gon Jinn that Yoda could almost see his graceful form kneeling on the mossy carpet in meditation.

Inadvertently, Qui-Gon had left his footprint on the surroundings here, and it almost seemed that this natural nook clung to his presence as a child to its mother. Qui-Gon had been gone three years now, and still Yoda could feel him here. Yoda could not just feel a mark or a shadow of his former student, he could feel _him_, his force signature, his presence as clearly as if Qui-Gon stood at his shoulder.

It was quite unlike anything the little master had experienced in all his long life. Almost as if Qui-Gon were not dead...almost as if he could hear the soothing tones of Qui-Gon's voice in the waterfall. Yoda's long, green ears twitched and he closed his eyes.

In life, he and Qui-Gon had never seen eye-to-eye. Yoda disapproved of Qui-Gon's rebelliousness and Qui-Gon had despaired at the unbending rules of the council. Rules followed for a millennia. A code set for reasons beyond a human's understanding.

Yet, after Qui-Gon's untimely death, an important truth had been revealed to Yoda. Qui-Gon Jinn had possessed greatness. A greatness that few on the council equaled... His life had been a nexus point upon which the fate of many revolved. Yoda did not yet know whether Qui-Gon's ultimate legacy would be for good or ill, but it would be great.

As the gardens attested to with their inexhaustible tribute to him.

'Stubborn. Headstrong. Rebellious.' Yoda thought suddenly. 'An unfitting legacy for a Jedi.'

"Kind. Compassionate. Intelligent," The gardens whispered back. "...Paramount for a Jedi."

Yoda smiled sadly. His deceased student had possessed all those qualities. Therefore, both evaluations were correct. Yoda, himself, knew that his own perception of Qui-Gon had often overlooked the many virtues of his human counterpart. But now time had softened the little green master's memory, and Qui-Gon's noble attributes surfaced more often in his recollections.

And the things they disagreed so vehemently on seemed less important. What seemed important now was the legacy that Qui-Gon had left within these gardens. Yoda ran a clawed finger along a rock and closed his eyes.

"Fond of you I was," he whispered in his aged voice.

A cascade of images swept through his mind. Qui-Gon as a child, blue eyed and sandy haired—then as a teenaged boy, tall and lanky—and finally as the master he'd matured into, centered and noble.

A feeling of warmth suffused Yoda, as when he watched a youngling laugh. He opened his green eyes and spoke to the air. "Loved you, I did."

The Force around him seemed to shift suddenly. The gardens soothed, quieted. Its protests in Qui-Gon's favor died down. Yoda nodded to himself, and began to move away from this place, away from this living tribute to a Jedi long deceased. He paused as he thought he heard the faintest whisper of a lilting, tenor voice.

_I loved you too._

Yoda glanced behind him, but nothing was there but fern and moss, rock and waterfall...and... _peace._


End file.
